Don't think I've come to a stage where I jump 16.90m and say, maine pahad tod diya: Arpinder Singh

Arpinder Singh is facing a race against time to qualify for the World Athletics Championships later this month in Doha.

The triple jumper from Amritsar registered his season's best jump of 16.83m in the sweltering afternoon Lucknow heat at the Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships last week. Yet, it wasn't enough to meet the Worlds qualifying mark of 16.95m. With the deadline to book the Doha ticket set for September 6, the 26-year-old will have one last knock at the door at the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala this week.

Not that it has set any panic buttons in him.

"I have to show people that I'm doing fine, sab theek hai (everything is fine)," Arpinder tells DNA.

Arpinder's urge to tell the world that all is well comes partly due to frequent changes in training bases and coaches this year, and partly because of an up-and-down season as a consequence of it. The Punjab boy had a brilliant 2018 season, in which he won gold at the Asian Games as well as became the first Indian to bag a medal from the IAAF Continental Cup. This season, though, has not quite been a continuation of 2018, at least thus far.

Before the Lucknow meet, his season's best was 16.63m in France in July, a fair distance off his personal best of 17.17m achieved in 2014, incidentally, also in Lucknow. Before the France show, Arpinder had a couple of disappointing jumps of 15s in June.

After the spring that 2018 gave him, Arpinder hasn't been able to elevate himself to the next level yet. However, it doesn't bog him down. "I don't think I've come to a stage where I jump 16.90m and say, maine pahad tod diya (I conquered the mountain)," Arpinder says.

"I've jumped 17m in 2014 itself. I won 2-3 medals last year because I thought luck was with me. But I wouldn't call it a big achievement. My average will improve with the work that I will put in over the next one year. Sooner rather than later, I want to be between 17.20m and 17.50m consistently," he adds.

It's only in the last four months that Arpinder feels settled in terms of his training after finding a quality coach in Antony Yaich at the Inspire Institute of Sport in Vijaynagar (Karnataka). Prior to that, he jumped from city to city in the hope of finding a stable training schedule, but in vain.

Even his request to train under American coach Jeremy Fischer in California got delayed due to the bureaucratic process.

"At the start of the year, I trained in Kerala. Then I went to Patiala because I was told a new coach will come there. But, nobody came. Then, the federation asked me where I wanted to go. I told them the US, but even that process took 2-3 months. So, I wasted a lot of time there," Arpinder narrates.

"The thing is, even if you go to the best training centre in the world, you need some time to adjust and get used to it. I couldn't get that much time. I was here for two months, then three months there and again a couple of months somewhere else. I couldn't focus.

"Over the last four months, things have settled and I have started to focus again," he adds.

Arpinder feels comfortable with the Frenchman Yaich, who has made several little technical changes in the Indian athlete. He has reduced Arpinder's run up by 2m, shortened his take-off leap and has also asked him to hit top gear from the word go.

"Earlier, I used to start slowly and then gradually pick up speed. He told me, 'We don't have that much time with us'. Now, I'm hitting my top speed from the start itself," Arpinder says.

"The thing is, any average coach can tell you the problem. But how to solve that is the biggest hallmark of a good coach. In that regard, I have huge respect for him (Yaich). He spots the issue, and immediately tells me how to rectify it. He finds solutions quickly.

"I'm feeling the difference working with him, and hopefully it will produce results soon," he adds.

The earliest would be the World Championships where, unlike a lot of times in the past, a few Indian athletes would be expected to put on a good show, which doesn't necessarily mean come back with a bagful of medals.

Arpinder believes there has been a paradigm shift among followers of Indian athletics. "The athletics scenario in India has changed post the Asian Games," he says. "People have started giving importance to athletics, and they have also started recognising us and our achievements. I get so many messages on social media. This is the first time I'm feeling the sense that 'yes, people are expecting things from me'. I hope I am able to live up to their expectations," he adds.

But with expectations comes the burden to deliver, and Arpinder has felt it. He recalls his time in Jakarta during the Asian Games, where he couldn't sleep properly for three nights before his golden performance. "I needed to show myself and to people that I can win a medal. You do feel a little bit of pressure when there are expectations. But I'm pretty cool that way. I don't think about all that a lot now," he says.

The same way he isn't fretting over setting goals for the rest of the season in terms of timing or medals or performances in key events like the Worlds, should he make it there.

He, however, has a promise. "You'll get to see an improved Arpinder. No one will feel that, 'Oh, we were expecting so much from him and he couldn't do it'. People will be happy with Arpinder. That I'm sure about," he says.